Flu...

I apologize, mostly to myself hehe, for not updating. I've been downtrodden with the flu for the past week and that has hampered basically any progress with my language studies. I can't even watch shows in Japanese with subtitles because it's so much effort to concentrate and read what's going on... talk about feeling miserable :(  Anyhow, I seem to be somewhat on the mend, so hopefully I can resume soon! Get better, me!

-Brendan

Nighttime Practice

As I lay in bed about to fall asleep, I decided to give myself a little test to see what words I could remember for the day. At first I was drawing a complete blank, but as I concentrated, the words trickled in one by one. I remembered nearly all of it!

I called up my blog on my phone to verify if I was correct, and figured I'd try a mobile post. Technology is freaky. Goodnight!

Busy, busy, busy

What an odd week it's been. I've been studying (a bit more sporadically) this past week, but I'm definitely out of my normal sleep pattern, and that's been messing me up in all sorts of ways! Things have finally settled down with the reacquisition of my car (don't ask), and no impromptu trips to the repair shop. My ability to study really depends on how well rested I am, and the complexity of the information I'm going to be studying. If it's a review of material I'm already familiar with, I can do those lessons fairly easily. Being able to prove to myself that I remember information, even while I am tired, is actually beneficial for me. It reaffirms the fact that I am learning and can easily recall information. This newest core lesson was a different story, however.

Wow.

What a load of new information this lesson was! I opened it up three nights ago in an attempt to start it and was bombarded with sentences that I did not understand at least 75% of. I knew then and there that I was not going to be able to process all this new information that evening (having just finished the lesson which took me 1 and a half hours, I am secure in my decision!). But being well rested today and able to concentrate, I stuck it through. I've learned a lot of new things and am anxious to learn more about the key points shown to me.

For a bit of an extracurricular activity, I decided to finish a digital painting I started some months ago, a portrait of Ayumi Hamasaki, who I've mentioned a couple of times thus far. While collecting her albums, I happened upon a nice image of her, and I thought that trying to paint it would be some good practice for me. Normally my artistic tendencies are very illustrative and cartoonish. I haven't done a "real" painting in nearly five years, if not longer, since my college days. It took quite some time, but I finished it this week (I'm much better at being creative than studying while tired).

浜崎あゆみ - by Yours Truly

-Brendan

Things I learned today

• asa = morning
• hiru = afternoon
• yuugata = evening
• yoru = night
• asagohan = breakfast (asa  - morning / gohan - meal, lit. morning meal)
• hirugohan = lunch
• yuugohan = dinner

 

• hataraku = to work (as in a job)
• shigoto = job
  
• gakkou = school
• byouin = hospital
• resutoran = restaurant 

 

• okunai = indoors
• soto = outdoors
• itsu = when (itsu hataraite imasuka When do you work?)

 

• shimai = sisters
• kyoudai = brothers/sisters

 

• mae = before
• ato = after 

 

• kochira = this person

Questions on my mind

• What does "kimasu" mean in the following sentence?

juugo wa juuroku no mae ni kimasu

•  I understand the gist of the sentence is "15 comes before 16", but thus far I don't recognize "kimasu", perhaps it means "to come"? I will have to look it up!

Parting practice phrases

•  Kono onna no hito tachi wa okunai de hataraite imasu. このおんなのひとたちはおくないではたらいています。 These women work indoors. 
• Kare wa tamago wo motte imasu ga, tabete imasen. かれはたまごをもっていますが、たべていません。He has an egg, he's not eating it.
• Kare wa shigoto no mae ni koohii wa nomimasu. かれはしごとのまえにコーヒーはのみます。 He drinks coffee before work.
  

Practice, practice, practice

I've been diligently keeping up with my studies. My lack of posts has mainly been due to my screwy sleeping schedule as of late. Normally I'm a night-owl, I like to draw into the wee hours of the night. That's also the time my studying has been falling into as well. And usually, even if I study earlier in the day (like today), I'll write these entries at night. My schedule has been having me hit the hay pretty early lately, so I'm a little behind on updating this journal here. I don't think anyone is keeping track of it but me though, so it's okay.

Anyways, I've just wrapped up my current lesson plan, which the core lesson I last posted about covered. It was an interesting span and I still find myself picking up more on the intricacies of the Japanese language. It's rather amazing how hardwired ones brain becomes when it learns it's owner's native language, so much so that it really struggles to adapt to the structure of a completely different one. Some Japanese friends tell me I should have an easy time learning Japanese because it's a simple language, and there are only a few characters to learn (not including Kanji of course), while they find English can be difficult. I, naturally, feel exactly the opposite. But it has caused me amazement to think of how special a child's brain is to really grasp the complexity of language and make such deep associations that will last their lifetime. It's times like this I wish I could do a selective temporary memory wipe, learn a new language as a "child" and regain my old memory on top of it!

I've dedicated the last handful of days to committing 29 katakana characters to memory, including the ones in my last post. One of the things that throws me off the most, when I see them used in other forms of print, are the different fonts. I suppose the differences equate to serifs on roman-lettered fonts. You might think one little dash is an integral part of the form the character, whereas it may really be a "brushstroke", which while important to the traditional form of the kana, can be left out on a more modern font. My method of associating a picture with a character to keep it fresh in memory definitely helps, but is sometimes trumped by this font difference. I'll overcome this hurdle in time!

-Brendan

Things I learned today

• I'm much better at understanding what I'm hearing than I am at replying in a simple sentence on the spot
• byouki = sick/ill
• tsukarete = tired/exhausted

Questions on my mind

• Why, when stating the color of a suit, is the structure slightly different for black and grey? Kuroi suutsu = black suit / Haiiro no suutsu = grey suit. Why is the no necessary for haiiro and not kuroi?

Parting practice phrase

Watashi wa se ga takai desu. わたしはせがたかいです。 I'm tall.

Up late, learning some katakana

So, I'm becoming frustrated with my inability to read katakana yet. Only because I learned the hiragana so quickly through my computer lessons. I can't realistically expect katakana to be thoroughly covered any time soon, as I have learned that it is generally used to represent words that aren't native to the Japanese language. I've found, so far, that items of clothing and some technological items (computers, televisions, etc.) are represented this way, and most are closely comparable to their English counterparts.

To combat this frustration I've started teaching myself the katakana system tonight, with the flashcards I got some time ago. They helped solidify my comfort with hiragana, and I hope that they will do the same for katakana. I've only set myself 9 cards to remember tonight. Hopefully I'll recall them in the morning! :)

• ア - a
  
• イ - i
• ウ - u
• エ - e
  
• オ - o
  
• カ - ka
  
• キ - ki
  
• ケ - ke
  
• ク - ku

-ブレンダン

Genki desu.

It's been quite a lengthy weekend! I've been struggling to do any studying for the past few days as my schedule has been uncharacteristically busy for me. I've followed through, however! I started a new core lesson yesterday, and split it between last night and tonight. I did this because there was a LOT of new information covered and I felt that I would not retain any of it past where I stopped last night. I've rarely felt my brain become "full" before! My hectic schedule this weekend has left me rather mentally exhausted anyways, and I'm sure that contributed to my inability to finish last night. I followed through with no problems tonight, however.

-Brendan

Things I learned today (and yesterday)

Some more clothing items

• seeta = sweater
• jiinzu = jeans
• beruto = belt
• suutsu = suit
• kutsushita = socks
• nekutai = necktie

Some more colors

• haiiro = grey
• murasaki = purple
• chairo = brown
• pinku = pink
• orenji = orange
• iro = color
  

Physical characteristics

• kami ( 髪 ) = hair (kanji included, as I know kami can also mean 'god' and 'paper')
• shiraga/hakuhatsu = grey/white hair
• akage = red hair (redhead)
• kinpatsu = blonde hair
• takai = tall
• hikui = short
• se = height

Physical conditions

• samui = chilly/cold
• atsui = hot
• nodo ga kawaku = to be thirsty (nodo = throat, kawaku = become dry)
• onaka ga suku = to be hungry (onaka = stomach, suku = become empty)
• Watashi wa guai ga warui desu = I am feeling bad (guai = condition, warui = bad/wrong)
• daijobu = all right
• genki = healthy/fine/energetic

A few common phrases/sayings

• Ogenki desuka? = How are you?
• Genki desu. = I'm fine.
• Tadaima! = I'm home!
• Okaerinasai! = Welcome home!
• Ittekimasu! = I'm leaving!

Parting practice phrase

Se no takai otoko no hito wa kuroi suutsu o kite imasu. せのたかいおとこのひとはくろいスーツをきています。The tall man is wearing a black suit.

Another Day, Another Lesson Finished

Just because I haven't been posting blogs doesn't mean that I haven't been doing lessons. Frequently now, I am constantly reviewing material I've already "Learned Today" in posts below. In fact, when I do a new core lesson, it covers all the material that I'll be expanding on over the next few days.

I approach my lessons sort of like a school class. I devote around an hour a day, and if I feel like I've absorbed a lot of information during a week then I will not feel guilty in taking a day or two off from my active studies (computer lessons). I will almost always read some of a book either pertaining to the language itself, or Japan in general just to keep myself immersed. I do this out of genuine interest, though. Not out of self-discipline to keep myself in check. I also try to listen to (kiku!) or watch (miru!) something in Japanese everyday as well. This is usually nothing that I have to go out of my way to do however, as you'd probably deduce from my last post. More and more I'm finding myself recognizing words and parts of sentences. Even if I'm not able to understand an entire sentence, I'm able to identify the subject and single out the words which are the actions, and look them up (sometimes, this is still a rare thing).

I mentioned Ayumi Hamasaki previously. I've been listening to certain songs of her since early 2004, some of them I even learned phonetically just to be able to sing along every once in a while. Now I'm finally at a point where I can understand what some of it means. It's like having a jigsaw puzzle for a really long time, being able to see the picture on the box, but when you open it it's a jumble of pieces with which you don't know where to begin. With each word and phrase I learn, I'm putting pieces together in little patches, gaining small views of the real picture inside the box. Sure I've read translations of the lyrics before, but people always say that translations are an approximation. There are rarely times where you're going to directly translate a sentence from Japanese to English (and vice-versa) word for word. So when you're reading a translation, you're getting the translators' approximation of what is originally said. And when it comes to song lyrics some huge liberties can be taken.

One thing I've learned, especially from reading a book I just got; Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You, is that the entire meaning of a sentence can change very easily and unintentionally to a non-native speaker. Here is a great example the author, Jay Rubin, uses;

Here is a sobering anecdote to illustrate how potent a little wa can be in differentiating a topic from implied others. [...]

I and a few other American scholoars were at a party and one of us tried to compliment our Japanese host by saying, Konban wa oishii mono ga takusan arimasu ne. By this he intended to say, "What a lot of tasty dishes you're serving us tonight." The host laughed and remarked, "You mean I'm usually stingy on other nights?" By putting wa after "tonight," my colleague had in effect said "Tonight, for a change, you're serving us a lot of tasty dishes."

 An amusing story amongst friends, but I'd hate to be in that situation with a stranger who might take it as an insult! I certainly have a long way to go!

However, this book has been very valuable in "making sense of" things that I wasn't too sure about thus far. Such as the differences between wa and ga in sentences. On a -very- basic level, when wa is used after a word, it puts the emphasis on the rest of the sentence containing the important information, whereas when ga is used after a word, that tells the listener/reader that the subject before ga is the important part of the information.

• Watashi wa ikimashita - "I went." Being the answer to the question "And what did YOU do when you heard about the sale?" "Me? I went."
• Watashi ga ikimashita - "I went." Being the answer to the question "Who went to get help after he hurt his leg?" "I went."

Non-textbook explanations like this are a big help, especially since I'm taking such a personal approach to learning the language. These are things that will stay with me forever.

-Brendan